Why I Vibed With These Five Hollywood Films Of 2023

Even after facing the biggest strike in its history, Hollywood still managed to touch hearts globally while giving us a magical cinematic experience with these releases. Well, there are many releases not being released in India. Here are a few films from Hollywood that left me spellbound.

As the year concludes, this listicle reveals the five films I loved watching and why they made waves worldwide. 

Why I Loved These 5 Hollywood Films of 2023?

Here is a list of Hollywood films I loved in 2023 and by the end of this article, you will know why without any spoilers. If you haven't watched it, after reading this, you are going to feel a strong FOMO, irrespective of your interest in the following genres. 

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Before I entered the cinema hall, I anticipated the film to not be as great and to only receive a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival for legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and nuanced performances by the gemmy cast. But despite its three-and-a-half-hour runtime, it garnered widespread acclaim and captivated me for its masterful weaving of Western historical crime drama with cinematic flair.

I never thought a love story would delight me so much, but it added a core to the film's themes of navigating exploitation, racism, violence, emotional complexities, betrayal, and injustice with Scorsese's signature long takes and meticulous attention to detail, making it truly a cinematic masterpiece, while the cast's nuanced performances enriched the emotional tapestry.

Barbie

The unexpected film Barbie crossing swords with prodigy director Christopher Nolan's magnum opus and becoming a cultural phenomenon was one of my favourite empowering moments of 2023, where a pink-hued romp won the world. When the film was expected to be feminist propaganda being a matriarchal bimbo, it explored themes of self-acceptance, self-discovery, and societal pressure with metafiction and surprisingly intense emotional depth.

The film's sharp and playful satire proved that even iconic toys can be reimagined in meaningful stories and that candy-coloured glasses are what we need to see life through in trapped adulthood as the film celebrated diversities, challenged assumptions, and was a beautiful reminder of why neutrality and acceptance are necessary with cleverly doing rights through Mattel's and society's wrongs.

Beau Is Afraid

After giving the psyche horror films for a lifetime like Midsommar and The Hereditary, Ari Aster once again shined with Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix in the surrealist tragicomedy horror with a gritty, sprawling, hallucinatory odyssey through the labyrinthine corridors of trauma, anxiety, and grief, draped in the unsettlingly familiar trappings of horror. 

The film covers an uncanny and visceral descent into the abyss of mental illness with an unflinchingly honest portrayal of the raw, isolating terror of anxiety and the distorted reality it creates. The film explores a deeply poignant exploration of generational trauma, which is such an absurdist delight that it almost felt like feeling a mental illness myself, keeping me not just glued but almost gulped by the film's plot and Phoenix's portrayal.

Past Lives

A directorial debut this strong! Celine Song exhibited her magic wand with a nuanced portrayal of human connection as the film depicts two versions of the same relationship between separated childhood sweethearts reconciling years later, delving into the bittersweet realm of 'what ifs', triggering the leftover regrets within all of us while also exploring memory fluidity that resonated with us all. 

The portrayal of love that stays with you, Past Lives, is an epic depiction of a female and a male mind simultaneously, and what I loved about the filmmaking was not spoon-feeding the emotions and perspectives but rather empowering us as the audience to write our narratives which created a profound sense of emotional connection with its story and characters, which left a lasting impression on me, setting high standards for the romance genre.

Wonka

Wonka has to be the most comforting film of the year and the best Christmas present for me, as Paul King after Paddington once again takes us into this whimsical fantasy world of The Chocolate Factory. And the heartthrob of Hollywood, Timothée Chalamet, smoothly accomplished the tough job of stepping into the shoes of legendary portrayals by Johnny Depp and Gene Wilder. 

I was smiling the two hours in the emotionally modern fantasy world full of inclusivity, self-acceptance, and pursuing dreams with a heartfelt message while Chalamet charmed the audience with his charisma and youthful buoyancy.